Posted in Travel

We just got home yesterday from our family trip to Paris.  It was delightful!!  We stayed at the Holiday Inn at Disneyland Paris.  It was inexpensive and had free parking.  Disneyland Paris is laid out much better than Walt Disney World because the entrances to Disneyland, Walt Disney Studios, and Disney Village are only a few short steps from each other.  AND, there's a train station right there at the park entrance, so we were able to take the bus from the hotel to the park, hop on the train to Paris and see everything we wanted to see for a low daily ticket price.

We spent Wednesday at Disneyland.  Here are my very own Beauty and my own (cuddly) Beast standing on Main Street U.S.A. (in Paris!) in front of their castle

Next stop was Adventureland to see the Pirates of the Carribbean.  The ride was slightly different, and not just because the pirates were speaking French.  LOL

We also hit Frontierland (Big Thunder Mountain) and Discoveryland (Space Mountain: Mission 2, Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear).  Hearing Buzz say "To infinity and beyond!" in French was a hoot!!

On Thursday, we went to Walt Disney Studios.  There wasn't much to do there.    They are opening two new rides based on Cars next month, so hopefully that will spice up that park a bit.  Bean says she doesn't feel we need to rush back for the opening of the Twilight Zone:  Tower of Terror, though.  I guess riding that once at Disney-MGM was enough for her.  We finally did catch up with our favorite mouse there, though.

It was too bad the character and the cast members all acted like Bean was too old to be wanting her picture taken with Mickey!   I think you're never too old for that.  Bean was very surprised to find that is she is now taller than The Mouse.  After lunch, we headed back to Disneyland and re-rode our favorite rides for the rest of the day.

On Friday, we took the train into Paris.  Our first stop was the Louvre.  Luckily, one of my best friends (hi Michele!) gave us a tip about getting the Paris Museum Pass.  It made getting into the museums so much quicker.  Once inside the Louvre (which is HUGE and very confusing!), we headed right for the Mona Lisa.  Everyone had told me she would be smaller than I expected, but she is really tiny!  They don't let you take pictures in her gallery or the surrounding salons.  We also checked out the Venus de Milo and Michelangelo's Escaping Slave.  We talked about how the Greeks loved to have the sculpture twisting to give the impression of movement.  Bean preferred the older statuary:

We ate lunch at the cafeteria under the pyramid.  It was very tasty.  I highly approve of the French approach to sandwiches:  everything starts with bread and butter.  No mayo!  WOOOHOOO!!  After lunch, we headed out of the Louvre and started our trek up the Champs des Elysses.

We found a crepe stand in the park and let Bean try her first Chocolate Crepe.  Ooh la la!

Once we reached the Arc de Triomphe, we climbed the 300+ circular, non-ending stairs to reach the top.  There were great views from every side of the Arc.  Here you can see down the Champs de Elysses with the Louvre at the end.

Once we had all caught our breath from the climb, we went back down, found the Metro station and went over to the Tour Eiffel.  There were a TON of people waiting to take the rickety-looking elevators to the top for 15€ each.  I still had a knot in my calf from our climb up the Arc, so paying 4€ each to climb the just-as-rickety-looking stairs didn't really appeal to me either.  We just took pictures from the ground.  If you look closely, you might be able to see me, Bean and Paris Minnie there at the bottom.

On Saturday, we again took the train into Paris and headed for Notre Dame.

It was too bad there were about 50 people already in line to climb the 422 circular steps to the top, so we had to skip that.  We did go to the Archeological Crypt to see the ruins they have found from the settlement that pre-dates the construction of Notre Dame. 

Our final stop on our whirlwind tour of Paris was at the Musee d'Orsay which features artists from the Pre-Impressionism and Impressionist movements.  I got to see my favorite Monet there:

We had a great time!!  Bean and I plan to go back again and spend more time at the Louvre.  Plus, Michele told us about this great place near there to get Hot Chocolate: Paris style.  I can't wait!

TTFN!

Posted in Travel

We went to our first Feis in Wassenaar, Netherlands on the last day of March.  It was wonderful (well, except for the part where I had to start driving at 0400 to get Bean there by 0900 because Mr. Safety (aka DH) wouldn't let me drive there Friday night--that made for a very long day sitting there listening to the world's most boring accordian player).  Bean did great for her first feis!  She and her partner got 1st place in the Beginner 2-Hand!!  WOOHOO!!

The next day, we went over to the Keukenhof to see all the spring flowers.  I took over 240 pictures (but I will spare you having to see all of them)!  Every single view was picture worthy!  Here are a couple pics of Bean with some of the flowers:

We had such a great time.  The weather was absolutely perfect!!  The drive back home didn't seem nearly as long as the trip there, but that possibly because I was actually awake for the trip home!  LOL

TTFN!

Posted in Travel

Okay, I think I've figured out how to do this.  I want to share with all of you some of our favorite memories from our visit to Scotland.

Our first day, we drove up near Inverness to visit Culloden Moor:

On the way back to Edinburgh from there, we stopped at Loch Ness (can you see Nessie in the background?):

We also found a circle of standing stones in the village of Aviemore:

The next day, we spent walking around Edinburgh.  One of our favorite things was trying to find all the cows on the Royal Mile:

We finally reached the end of the Royal Mile at Edinburgh Castle:

At the chapel there, we saw this beautiful stained glass window honoring William Wallace:

Our last day, we drove up to Stirling to visit the castle there and saw this statue of Robert the Bruce:

Hope you enjoy the pictures!!

TTFN!

Posted in Travel

I didn't realize I hadn't posted on my blog in such a long time!!

The trip to Scotland was everything I could have dreamed!!  We spent our first day driving up toward Inverness.  We visited Culloden Battlefield, Loch Ness (didn't see Nessie, though) and Cairngorm National Park.  Our 2nd day we spent touring the Royal Mile in Edinburgh (lots of shopping!!).

Our 3rd day was consumed by Hubby's running of the Edinburgh Marathon.  While he didn't do as well as he hoped, Bean and I were so proud of him just for finishing!!  It was his very first time running a marathon and we all learned a LOT!  He plans to do another one in October in Frankfurt, Germany.  The great thing about that one is that he'll get to sleep in his own bed the night before and eat his regular pre-run breakfast.  There's also a Mini Marathon of 4.2 km for Bean to run.  This is going to be great!!

The 4th day we drove up to Stirling Castle and looked around there.  That afternoon we visited an American-style mall.  It was almost like being home except everyone spoke with an accent!  LOL

Our last day in Scotland was filled with getting back to Glasgow to get to our flight.  We then got to spend 4 hours in Dublin's Airport (but at least we can say we've been to Ireland!).

I found TONS of the Horrible Histories series books at various sites we visited.  If I had known how few of them would be available on Amazon, I would have loaded up my suitcase with them!!

I'll try to post some pictures after I get them off the camera.